Six Months and Counting

Today marks six months since I started publishing this blog. Although that’s not a lot of time in the life of most things—a strong, happy marriage; a coastal redwood in the middle of Muir Woods, or even a sentimental cigar in my mother-in-law’s freezer—I would suspect it’s a long time for a blog.

I have no way to prove it, but I would guess that of the 175,000 or so blogs started each day, most of them last only a few weeks before drying up like an old river in the summer heat.

It’s not easy to write a blog post or two each week. And unless it’s part of your job, or your dedication is that of an iPhone devotee, it’s far too easy to let it slip into oblivion.

While I’d like to think that Darwin would be proud of my blog’s survival, the truth is it means little. Among the 180 million blogs now on the Internet, mine is insignificant, followed by only a handful of people, each of whom could get along quite well without it.

But I knew that would be the case going into this endeavor six months ago. As much as I’d like to publish a powerful blog, recognized for its leading-edge thinking and ideas, and read by a half-million eager, enthusiastic followers, I’ll settle for what I have: a quiet blog that whispers, rather than shouts; that lets me expand my writing in ways I could never do working for businesses; and that keeps me alert to topics to write about just to see what I might be thinking about them.

While focusing on only one subject—communications—since this blog began, I’ve written about many topics. Something I read or heard sparked many of them: Walmart, social media and leadership, and Panera Bread’s community relations activities, among them.

Other topics are old favorites, and I just needed the right event to trigger my thinking about them. My post on the J-3 Cub airplane, for example, came after a trip to the EAA fly-in at which the Cub’s 75th anniversary was celebrated. Spotting Starbuck’s misspelling of vegetable and a local dairy’s use of wright instead of write led to posts about grammar and writing.

Some topics I didn’t see coming until I was staring at them and thoughts were already forming around them in my subconscious mind. Among blogs based on stealth topics were Lisa Simpson’s statement about being “the something of the something,” a crisis at the Vatican, and tattoos relating to the Olympics.

So now with six months’ experience, and 39 posts, behind me, it’s time to think about going forward. What will I write about next week, month, or year?

I can tell you what my next post will be. Beyond that, though, the possibilities are limitless.

The only thing I know for sure is that I will continue to write about communications. And I will continue to approach this subject through a prism, rather than a magnifying glass, so I can come at it with varied perspectives and not reiterate the same ideas presented by everyone else.